Hilton bombing sets off battle of tactics

February 13, 1978 … the bomb that detonated outside the Commonwealth leaders' hotel killed three men.

Phillip HudsonJanuary 1, 2009

A TWO-PAGE memo from Petro Georgiou appears to have stopped the Fraser government from taking drastic action against the Ananda Marga after the Hilton Hotel bombing in 1978.

Ten days after the February 13 blast that killed two council workers and a policeman when a bomb planted in a garbage bin outside the hotel exploded as it was emptied into a garbage truck, cabinet met to consider withdrawing all forms of recognition and support for the group. These included school funding, tax breaks and recognition as a religious denomination under the Marriage Act.

Documents released today by the National Archives of Australia shed new light on the battle inside the government about how to respond to what is considered the most prominent terrorist attack on Australian soil.

Mr Georgiou, then a top adviser to Malcolm Fraser, had been at the Hilton when the bomb exploded. He warned Mr Fraser in the February 23 memo that sanctions proposed by the administrative services minister, Reg Withers, were "too mild to deter" and would only "inflame groups that it is directed against … A step of this kind would only lead to further acts of terrorism."

He underlined how unprepared Australia was to fight back: "Should the response of Ananda Marga adherents be a violent one directed at the Australian government, we are not at the moment terribly well geared up to meet it."

Now a federal MP, Mr Georgiou also raised civil liberty concerns and said there was no evidence against Ananda Marga as an organisation, only that some of its members had been responsible for terrorist actions.

The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation's confidential advice said it had "no information which would link AM to the Hilton bombing" but "the possibility cannot be ignored". It predicted as long as Ananda Marga's founder, P.R. Sarker, remained in jail in India "isolated acts of violence will continue against Indian establishments and officials in Australia".

The then foreign affairs minister, Andrew Peacock, was also staying at the Hilton because it was hosting regional Commonwealth leaders, including the Indian prime minister.

"I remember the explosion and someone called me immediately, one of the security people, and I ran down to inform Malcolm and Tamie. I had to bang on the door [of their hotel room]. Security was pretty hopeless. I managed to get them up and Malcolm and I went down in our bloody pajamas," he said this week.

He recalls being up all night and signing orders for troops to escort the visiting world leaders to a retreat in Bowral.

The Ananda Marga was a major headache for the Fraser government. Twice its members threw pamphlets from the public gallery into the House of Representatives chamber, causing cabinet to consider - but reject - placing a screen between the public and the politicians, a practice then used only in Israel.

Five days before the bombing, Senator Withers warned cabinet: "Politically motivated violence will not only be with us for years to come, but is likely to evolve in ways that could pose even more serious threats to society than in the past."

He said the biggest growth was in bombings and he was concerned about terrorists hijacking a plane. Cabinet adopted a policy that would first try to force terrorists to surrender but when all options were exhausted it would allow the "ultimate alternative" to negotiate concessions with terrorists. Cabinet decided this policy would "not be published".

The retired London police commissioner Sir Robert Mark advised on security and counter-terrorism. This led to the creation of the Australian Federal Police.

Thirty years later, speculation continues about who planted the Hilton bomb. It took 11 years for charges to be laid against two Ananda Marga members and their convictions were later overturned.

Security lessons

The Herald's editorial, Saturday, February 18, 1978

After the bomb blast, after the tragic loss of life and the serious injuries, after it was disclosed that, incredibly, no one had thought it necessary to inspect rubbish bins outside the hotel in which the Commonwealth leaders were staying, it was found necessary to tighten security further. Subsequent events were not especially reassuring. There was an element of over-reaction in Mr Fraser's invocation of emergency powers to direct the army to clear the way to Bowral. There was a touch of incipient hysteria about the proceedings, with the lord mayor contributing a note of sheer farce by suggesting the permanent removal of rubbish bins from Sydney streets. Inexperience and amateurism were in the ascendant - with the honourable exception of the soldiers who almost alone showed professionalism.